Sardan

I have both of these at 50. The Ele was indeed fun, but eventually I got tired of his lackluster single target damage. The SS is more capable all around, although you have to put up with Rage crashes.

It may sound silly but one thing that really increased the fun factor for me on my SS/Shield was using alternate animations for Knockout Blow and Footstomp. The two handed version of KO Blow, when used with shields, creates the nastiest looking shield bash ever. And the pounding-fist-into-the-ground version of Footstomp is teh sexeh. Those animations have been broken (only when used with shields) for weeks. Can't wait for them to get fixed.

Well, the geyser travel speed is much higher than the raptor pack so I think it's still worthwhile trying to use the geysers. Just make sure to have the raptor pack as a back up.

The only way to get a chance of purples in AE is to play Dev's Choice arcs and select the option to get recipe drops instead of tickets. There's no way to roll for purples using tickets.

Maybe you haven't played your Fire/Kin in a while? It's true that SB used to amp up the DPS of imps, but they've been changed so that they are immune to +Recharge. So any "blatantly obvious" improved DPS nowadays is just the placebo effect.

The big deal is that you're completely negating the benefit of Ice Slick.

The purpose of Ice Slick is to dramatically reduce incoming damage by causing mobs to repeatedly fall. If you use an immob on top of ice slick, you're completely canceling the knockdown and allowing enemies to attack full speed.

Now, if the team has the situation well under control then by all means throw Fire Cages and go to town. But if the baddies on the ice slick are still numerous enough to be a threat to the team, you do the team a huge disservice by using Fire Cages.

If you're the only controller on the team, things are very different. Fire Cages doesn't affect the stun from Flashfire and is helpful because it sets up containment (double damage) and keeps the mobs from spreading out as they stagger around stunned. So while it's a natural alpha strike for a Fire/Kin to do Flashfire + Fire Cages, if an Ice Slick is thrown down (and not Flashfire), don't use your immob.

In addition, there are a few synergies that aren't obvious. Imps have no ranged attacks so they are the ideal pet for a Kin -- they're always in range for Fulcrum Shift, unlike pets like Phantasm that typically attack from range. Hotfeet is a powerful damage aura when amped up to the damage cap. Perhaps most important, Flashfire is up for every spawn and is compatible with the AoE immobilization power Fire Cages. The immob is important because it triggers containment which doubles damage and is not limited by the damage cap.

I'm currently leveling an Ice/Kin now (and loving it) but if I tried that trick with an AoE immob over Ice Slick it'd be counterproductive and likely lead to debt.

Just in case you're not familiar with their full names: Niviene and theOcho.

I'll leave that challenge to someone else, thanks. I can't imagine why someone would farm this mission to begin with.

Oh true. I stand corrected, thanks.

1) You should've taken advantage of the free server transfers
2) Users are hostile to this idea partly because they're VERY attached to their character names.
3) It's taken as a sign of MMO implosion when a game reduces the number of servers. So just from a marketing/PR point of view, it'd be better to keep empty servers running than to shut them down.

My take on the best solution: the devs should make server transfers very inexpensive, like a buck.

Here's the objection people have about Fire Kin Master. First, the guy built an extremely expensive build via purchased inf from gold farmers. Second, he builds a map that punishes builds without high defense, and then gimps his toon's effectiveness in numerous ways in order to build high defense. Then to really pile on the crazy, he pointlessly goes WAAAAY above the defense softcap, gimping himself further.

People have tried to point out that farming is about efficiency, it's about defeats/minute. It's trivial to put together an AE farm that a fire/kin can do with just generic IOs that will have a kill rate similar to what Fire Kin Master is doing.

Somehow he thinks being the best means being able to tackle a farm that normal fire/kins can't handle. So any controller without very high defense will not do well on his map. But so what? Occasionally my brute farms a map consisting entirely of CoT possessed scientists and Burn Protectors. I guarantee that Fire Kin Master and any other squishy not protected against mez would get punished on that map. But it plays to my brute's strengths. Somehow I can see that and everyone else can see that, but Fire Kin Master can't. And that's where the humor is. It's his amazing combination of arrogance, utter cluelessness, and awesome forum posting technique that keep us coming back for more.

That was a "lol" moment for sure. I love this guy.

Oh, it's a well-founded fear, believe me. Notice the post right underneath the one where I foolish mentioned The Pantsless One.

In the best traditions of villains everywhere, notice that Dr. Aeon didn't really answer that question.

I did that too, only intentionally back when people were farming that trial. It was standard procedure for everyone to do the long fall.

Coolest mission map for me is probably the Eden Trial. It just really seems otherworldly.

The fortress in the ITF was also awe-inspiring to me the first time I saw it, although now that I've run that TF a zillion times, it no longer has any impact on me.

The first time I approached the Storm Palace in Shadow Shard was another "holy cow!" moment. The inside of the Storm Palace has to take the prize for the biggest anti-climax in the game, given the incredible grandeur of the outside.

The first time I saw the casino district in St. Martial at night with all its neon, it knocked my socks off.

If you haven't done it, crossing the dam in Faultline is cool by first going through the dam the normal way, then taking the underground tunnels there. I think a lot of folks have never seen the far side of the dam, and while it's not otherworldly or awe-inspiring, it's just neat to see the battles raging there.

The devs finally take time to give us a teaser about GR and then when the player base's speculation veers off course, people blame the devs. I'm sure Jay posted as soon as he was aware of the issue. Let's be gracious and cut the devs some slack, folks. Hopefully they'll be eager to share more goodies with us instead of deciding that forum rage isn't worth it.

Wait, they took notice of players wanting glowing costumes from this thread? What about my incredibly persuasive request from 3 1/2 years ago in Jay's costume request thread? Surely you meant to say something like, "The devs have finally admitted that Sardan's request has reached the top of the to do list."

If you had two blasters, one Energy and the other Fire, I'd ask you to play the Fire because I love the AoEs and not having to deal with KB is nice. But if I knew you were a competent player and the choice was between your Energy blaster and some random Fire blaster available, I'd pick your Energy blaster because ultimately it's more about the player than the powerset.